A couple weeks back, I ordered two items on Amazon. When the delivery failed, I requested and immediately received a full refund. I re-ordered the items. Two days later, the “undeliverable” items showed up. I likely could have kept quiet and gotten everything free. Instead, I called and explained the situation. At first, the rep […]
Category: Building Bridges
A key tenet of successful customer service is the level of emotional intelligence or ignorance that prevails. This pervades all facets of customer service, but one where much improvement is needed is the written word. Especially now, amid major stress, anger, and frustration, corporate America could do itself proud by communicating positively and supportively. Instead, […]
There is an etiquette of sorts that will help ensure achieving the best possible Customer Force of 1 results from higher-ups in the organization you’re targeting for help and resolution. Here are four tips to help you get there: Leverage your initial contact with the regular customer service department. Sometimes, when you’ve experienced poor customer […]
While customer service departments and representatives generally are doing a better job of addressing consumer satisfaction in a timely and complete manner, it’s not always sufficient to rely on others to move the process forward. In some cases, the impacted customer needs to go further and farther to pierce the normal routes and get needed […]
It may be Joe Biden’s stationary bike of choice, but Peloton is currently a poster child for under delivering, with buyers expressing strong frustration about long waits to get their bikes delivered. Notes the New York Times in a January 17, 2021 article: “Peloton’s Rapid Rise Is Threatened by Its Slow Delivery…The company has boomed […]
On 60 Minutes recently, Maine Senator Angus King called Maine “a big small town.” When interviewer Jon Wertheim asks what he meant, King responds, “If you’re from Maine and you stop on the New Jersey Turnpike for gas, and the car next to you has a Maine plate on it– I guarantee within 30 seconds […]
In a world filled with distrust and discord, building and maintaining brand trust will be more important than ever in 2021’s customer service equation. Companies offering and delivering on trust promises will see increased customer loyalty and longevity along with beneficial effects of positive reviews and word-of-mouth. Companies coming up short in the trust arena […]
Where does customer service cross over into undeserved customer entitlement? A recent T-Mobile ad campaign got me thinking about this important distinction, with the “I want it all…and I want it now” theme. While competent, dedicated and sincere customer service needs to continue growing in this country, the opposite is true of our entitlement mentality, […]
As COVID continues to dominate our lives, customer crankiness is growing substantially. That makes the job of customer service specialists even more challenging. Consumers are not in a forgiving mood, as a recent article in MartechSeries.com (via PRNewswire) notes: “As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, more than 80% of consumers in the US expect customer support […]
Gotta hand it to Costco once again. Their growth continues healthily through the pandemic, largely because of their unwavering dedication to customer service (and their strong employee support doesn’t hurt either). And, this is despite ranking lower than some competitors in the convenience category, cited by a recent ZDNet.com report as a chief consumer buying […]
